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magnatune.com

A small offering, but it look slike a step in the right direction.

quoting the website:

We're a record label. But we're not evil.

We call it "try before you buy." It's the shareware model applied to music.

Listen to hundreds of MP3'd albums from our artists. Or try our genre-based radio stations.

If you like what you hear, buy our music online for as little as $5 an album or license our music for commercial use.

Artists get a full 50% of the purchase price. And unlike most record labels, our artists keep their rights to their music.

Founded by musicians, for musicians.

No major label connections.

We are not evil.

Artists get 50% and retain the rights to their music - now that's something you'll never see from the RIAA. I really hope this approach gains momentum.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1389, old post ID:11993

Wow that's great! I hope more artists are going to go with them instead of the riaa. I suppose this is in efforts to try and make the riaa realize they are not only music fan ennemies but music artist enemies as well.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1389, old post ID:11996

the riaa
is nothing more then a free loading joke .
i would love to see a list from them showing just where the money is going .
i would all most take bets it`s not to the artists


and it looks like the other is a step in the right direction

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1389, old post ID:11999

Only 2$ max per CD goes to the artists. That's why the riaa is so evil! They are the ones fighting... for THEIR money, they don't care about the artists, the artists are just their slaves making CDs so the RIAA can sell them and make money

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1389, old post ID:12000

they say they care.
it`s all about money .THERE`S


Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1389, old post ID:12002

Im saying it's cool, and if it does happen to work, it won't be such a bad thing.. Artists making less money.. they have enough as it is.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1389, old post ID:12004

They keep talking about artists and copyight law, when they've been manipulating copyright law for decades with the express purpose of stealing money rightfully owed to artists. Only top artists, with a lot of clout are able to wrestle away ownership of the music they created from the labels. Everyone else is locked into contracts which specify that everything they create is to be considered "work made for hire" which allows the labels to utilize a loophole in copyright law to steal ownership away from the artists. Of course this "work for hire" clause was created for real employees who get benefits and everything else associaited with a regular job - none of which these artists are getting.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1389, old post ID:12005

wldkos wrote: Im saying it's cool, and if it does happen to work, it won't be such a bad thing.. Artists making less money.. they have enough as it is.

You'd think so, but fame does not always equal fortune, and only the really big artists get that much of either.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1389, old post ID:12006

What I don't get is, why do artists settle with record labels to start off with? Can't they just go alone? Like they can record themselves and get a company to make copies of the CD for a fee and sell it etc... sort of like software companies probably do.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1389, old post ID:12007

Red Squirrel wrote: What I don't get is, why do artists settle with record labels to start off with? Can't they just go alone? Like they can record themselves and get a company to make copies of the CD for a fee and sell it etc... sort of like software companies probably do.

Well, up until recently the cost to produce an album and get it to market were too high to go it alone. But costs have come way down recently. Studio time is still pretty expensive, but with a decent computer and the right software, artists can do the mixing themselves. CDs are pretty cheap to make nowadays, and selling them online doesn't cost nearly as much as the alternatives, and you can also you the web to gain exposure. Truth is, traditional labels are becoming obsolete, and artists ae beginning to realize that. It's just the brute power and hideous amounts of money that allow the RIAA to keep it's stranglehold on the industry.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1389, old post ID:12008

manadren wrote:

Red Squirrel wrote: What I don't get is, why do artists settle with record labels to start off with?  Can't they just go alone?  Like they can record themselves and get a company to make copies of the CD for a fee and sell it etc...  sort of like software companies probably do.

Well, up until recently the cost to produce an album and get it to market were too high to go it alone. But costs have come way down recently. Studio time is still pretty expensive, but with a decent computer and the right software, artists can do the mixing themselves. CDs are pretty cheap to make nowadays, and selling them online doesn't cost nearly as much as the alternatives, and you can also you the web to gain exposure. Truth is, traditional labels are becoming obsolete, and artists ae beginning to realize that. It's just the brute power and hideous amounts of money that allow the RIAA to keep it's stranglehold on the industry.

+1, also distrobution is taken care of by the labels. Surely you can't mass produce around 1,000,000+ cd's and expect them to end up somewhere they should be.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1389, old post ID:12012

wldkos wrote: +1, also distrobution is taken care of by the labels. Surely you can't mass produce around 1,000,000+ cd's and expect them to end up somewhere they should be.

thsi is true but if an artist distributes directly to the consumer via the web, they can cut those costs by producing cds only as they need them and not have to worry about getting them on store shelves and hoping that they sell. These costs are still a bit high for smaller bands though. Ideally the distribution could be taken over a 3rd party online merchant, who could produce the cds on demand, and thus not have to worry about keeping an inventory, so they could support a wide array of artists with minimal risk. The technology to do this has been here for a while, we just need a few companies to step in and give it a shot. In fact I thik that this kind of model is what sites like magnatune and mp3.com are trying to move toward.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1389, old post ID:12026

Yeah that would be cool.

And I think online distribution is something a lot of people would go for, you could actually get a custom CD made online for you with the songs you want, and the artists would get money each time one of their songs is put on a CD, and of course people would be able to buy an entire album.

Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:1389, old post ID:12027